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Living with the iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max transition

I moved to an Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max from an Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. That’s an important factor to bear in mind when one sees phone comparisons. Secondly, I don’t earn my living doing phone reviews, so my reactions are likely to be less dramatic than a professional phone reviewer. Instead, I am trying to reflect a view of what its like to live with the device.

Smartphones overall

You would have to look pretty hard to find a dreadful premium or mid-range smartphone nowadays. Some of the lower end Motorolas are sluggish performers, have the build quality of an early Samsung Galaxy and a mic that cuts in and out. But for the average iPhone user, a phone that is five years old is still a cracking phone, that could go another few years with a replacement battery.

The cameras are more than adequate for snapshots or document scanning, but no amount of software will make up for the quality of the lens in a smartphone versus a semi-professional photographers camera. And for most people, that’s enough. Performance has reduced to incremental improvements in real world performance. And in this respect smartphones mirror personal computers; as the huge perceived performance gains of the early computers flattened out.

I no longer need a Mophie Juice Pack case to make the iPhone last through a work day like I did with the iPhone 3GS. Although for long trips away from my desk, I still a power pack and a cable in my bag. This is as much about having the reassurance of knowing that I can run down my battery with lots of Maps usage if I have to, rather than a real need. Increased battery life is partly a function of screen size. The larger the screen, the larger the battery. Device screen sizes have grown over the years. Secondly, chip design and system software have focused on power consumption as part of a decade plus long focus on computing power per watt.

I still miss the keyboard and form-factor of my old Nokia E90; despite its flaky Symbian software. But I no longer miss its superior battery life, or the ability to remove the battery and replace it with fully charged spare.

Out of the box

All of the iPhone 12 models come in smaller packaging than previous devices. The primary reason for this is Apple no longer supplies a USB charger. The excuse that Apple provided was that it was environmentally friendly. The problem with this is there are some awfully unsafe USB chargers available online as an alternative. The second thing that was missing from the box was a set of Apple wired earbuds. Again this was put down to being environmentally friendly by Apple. Though you could also come to two less flattering conclusions:
- Apple is converting an insignificant amount of Android users, but only converting existing Apple iPhone customers. So headphones with a Lightning connector wasn’t needed and Apple could save on costs
- It was a cynical ploy by Apple to drive AirPod wireless headphone sales even higher
I can understand why Chinese netizens considered both moves to Apple shortchanging customers. I agree with them.

China

It is also interesting to note that all the main live-streaming platforms in China simultaneously decided to cancel live-streaming of the iPhone 12 series launch.

Of course the Chinese government / Communist Party of China had nothing to do in coordinating this – honest….

Handset design

When you take the iPhone 12 Pro Max handset out of the box, you immediately notice its size and weight. It has steep stainless steel sides like an iPhone 4 on steroids.

iPhone 12 Pro Max view from the back of the phone

Usually the heft of a premium phone feels reassuring. But at first, holding the phone was a dissonant experience. There were a few reasons for this:

The change in design language from smooth round edges on handsets from the iPhone 6 onwards, to a flat edge of the iPhone 4 and 5.

It was the first time that an iPhone model has become thicker than the previous generation of iPhone.

The change in design with its thicker flat sides has little difference in putting on a protective case, but removing the case is noticeably harder.

After three days or so usage, the iPhone 12 felt perfectly normal as I got used to it.

Camera

As I said at the outset to this post, this like other modern premium smartphones, are good at taking snapshots. The main difference between my iPhone 11 Max Pro and iPhone 12 Max Pro was a slight increase in optical magnification. The rest of the mild photographic improvements were available in the iOS 14 software for both new and older iPhones.

Networking

The big selling point for Apple on the iPhone 12 Pro Max is its ability use 5G networks. The problem is that for consumers 5G doesn’t have a compelling killer application at the moment.

In that respect, it reminds me a lot of my time working with Cap Gemini as a client when video calling and Quibi like sports and entertainment clips were thought to be the killer app for 3G.

The reality is that it took wi-fi and 4G made video to make calls work, even then the product isn’t perfect. Shorter sellable video content is still looking for a market. 5G does have industrial niche market opportunities. Secondly, 5G network rollout means that there will be probably three generations of future iPhones before the 5G wireless function becomes useful. I still live in a neighbourhood in central London where I often lose 4G coverage. 5G will require many more cell sites to provide the same level of coverage.

Cellphone reception seems to be better; I don’t know if this is down to the handset or my carrier building out their infrastructure further during the lockdown.

My house has never had great cellphone reception during my time living here. It backs on to a railway line with overhead electrification and only had windows the side facing away from the railway. Yet I am now seeing two bars of signal in parts of the house where I previously would only have had Wi-Fi or a single bar of 3G.

Conclusion

Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is an accomplished handset. It offers good battery life, responsive performance, a great screen, a good camera and is well made. But there is insufficient reason to upgrade if you have an iPhone made in the last three years. You already have a good well made phone. It has a good camera and will run the latest version of iOS.

If your battery no longer holds the charge, the way it once did, Apple offers a service to replace the battery at a very reasonable cost.

More design related posts here.

More information and selected reviews

iPhone 12 launching without earbuds or wall chargers is compared to eating without chopsticks in China | South China Morning Post

Shenzhen/Huawei: the other Bay Area | Financial Times – The impression of military manoeuvres by alternative means was reinforced by Tencent, another Shenzhen resident. It was among big Chinese social and video platforms including iQiyi and Weibo, that simultaneously cancelled the livecast of Apple’s iPhone 12 launch

Kibbles & Bytes #1122: Apple Releases Four iPhone 12 Models and the HomePod mini – Don nails the assessment of 5G in the latest edition of his newsletter.

Daring Fireball: The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro – interesting thoughts on the iPhone 12s. What Gruber doesn’t touch on is the radio improvements, particularly in 4G
December 30, 2020
iPhone 12 range launch
Apple announced a four phone iPhone 12 range:
- iPhone 12 Mini
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
I looked at the event using a social listening tool and the thing that really struck me was where the people commenting on it where commenting from.

Languages versus 1,000s of mentions

Thinking about key Apple markets; at least some of the buzz seems geographically misplaced. There was a distinct lack of discussions happening in Japan and mainland Europe for example. I watched it with a couple of friends based in Hong Kong; but I realise the launch itself would be at an inconvenient time in Japan.

Where was the Japanese pre-event buzz though? Why didn’t Apple do more to build buzz in Japan? Apple has a sizeable market share in Japan and this 5G range of handsets are strategically important to retain that market share.

As for mainland Europe, if social discussions are a proxy for a lack of interest; Apple has a serious problem on its hands. The silence hints a wider question around brand and product relevance. Yes 5G rollout is less advanced than in Asia, but there is also the improved camera and improved 4G reception that the handsets provide. Apple has arguably the best 4G antennas currently available on a handset which would benefit real world performance.

At this time, Apple should be on the up, given that Huawei is no longer a serious contender in the market. Instead there is the silence of one hand clapping.

Here’s what the social discussions looked like during the live event.

Social mentions over time.

As a brand marketer I would be concerned. The fan boys didn’t show, neither did the critics. Yes this launch is happening in a pandemic, but that should help due to the lack of distractions and the break from doom scrolling on social to do something else.

More Apple related posts here and rewatch the iPhone 12 launch online.
October 14, 2020
By innovation only. Yet another iPhone launch
Apple’s September 10 event ‘By innovation only’ marked the autumn season of premium smartphone launches. It is also a bellwether of what we can expect from the technology sector.

Mark Twain’s ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes’ fits especially well in the smartphone business. From a consumer perspective Apple’s 2019/20 iPhone range is basically the same phones but with more camera features. Other vendors are going to come out with handsets with more camera and 5G modems.

All of them are going to be trapped in the same pictures-under-glass metaphor. The smartphone industry as a whole (with the iPhone as bellwether) is trapped in its own version of groundhog day.

5G? Not so fast

Whilst 5G sounds good on new handsets, there’s five points to consider:
- Early generation handsets for a new wireless standards tend to have poor battery lives
- 5G phones are only as good as 5G networks
- There aren’t applications to make use of 5G networks
- A lot of mobile usage happens on home or other wi-fi networks. 5G is competing with your home broadband connection rather than your patchy cellular connection
- 5G isn’t really about smartphones
When you see all launches (like this picture from the Huawei Mate 30 launch); just remember the five points above and process the slick technology spin through this lens.

In Huawei’s case they’re basically launching very pretty €1,000+ 5G Mi-Fi hotspots with point-and-shoot camera functionality, since they’re an Android phone without access to Google services. The Porsche Design variants come out at closer to €2,500 – ideal for bored, but patriotic 土豪.

Price inelasticity

Apple’s iPhone X and XS models tested the the price elasticity of premium smartphones. The market spoke. This year’s prices have stayed the same rather than increasing. You could argue that the value proposition has increased through a year’s worth of bundled services. Of course, its only worth anything if you use the services.

Differentiation through services

Seven years ago I was sat in a hotel restaurant in Seoul and overheard Flipboard going through a pitch they wanted to deliver to Samsung. Samsung eventually tried out Flipboard and free content subscriptions to help sell the Galaxy S3.

Apple decided to build their own free subscription model based around streaming video. This is to:
- Differentiate its new devices from competitors
- Provide a recurring revenue stream from iPhone users with older devices
- Utilise the massive data centres that Apple has been building for the past decade
Built to last

The use of superior materials has resulted in iPhones lasting longer. Add this to pricing and for many people, their first iPhone is a pre-owned iPhone. They are handed down in families or to older relatives. This has built Apple a large user base. The big question is whether they can turn this footprint into services.

There is a tension between new phone sales in a saturated marketplace, versus a growing base of service users.

More information

Apple Live Event: Apple Cuts Prices for Sales, New Subscribers – Bloomberg

Apple Event: Upgrades, Upgrades, Upgrades – Tech.pinions

The iPhone and Apple’s Services Strategy – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Apple is making its iPhones last longer. That’s a good thing | Macworld
September 20, 2019
iPhone tweet blunder + more

Chinese phone maker Huawei punishes employees for iPhone tweet blunder | Reuters – I don’t understand why Huawei isn’t using agencies in Hong Kong any more, so that there isn’t these kind of problems. Huawei punishes employees for iPhone tweet blunder also makes the company look petty. We know Huawei employees use Apple products, Madam Meng had an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air when arrested. Yes it was an iPhone tweet blunder, but they could have been bigger and more mature about it. You don’t get an iPhone tweet blunder if you use use a desktop service like Hootsuite, Buffer or similar social publishing platforms like Percolate that allow for complete corporate control. More related content here.

Qualcomm kicks off crucial fight with U.S. antitrust regulator | Reuters

Release Devanagari support · IBM/plex · GitHub – IBM’s font Plex is available for download

China says its navy is taking the lead in game-changing electromagnetic railguns – Chinese warships will soon be equipped with electromagnetic railguns that fire projectiles with “incredibly destructive velocity,” and that the underlying technology was based on “fully independent intellectual property,” rather than designs copied from other nations. – Interesting as the US Navy shut down their rail gun programme, you can see footage on YouTube that gives you an idea of how devastating it would be.

https://youtu.be/8UKk84wjBw0

The liberating thrill of a slender book | Quartz – Let’s keep this short. We’re busy. We want to read but don’t have time for deep dives, and that applies to books as well as articles

Startup founders say age bias is rampant in tech by age 36 – There’s a scourge in tech that apparently runs even deeper than sexism or racism: ageism. In a wide-ranging survey of US startup founders polled by venture-capital firm First Round Capital, 37% said age is the strongest investor bias against founders, while 28% cited gender and 26% cited race.

Underclocking the ESP8266 Leads To WiFi Weirdness | Hackaday – you could have your own local area radio network on the down low

Understanding the Emerging Era of International Competition: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives | RAND – great background on the rivalry between China, the US and European Union

Opinion | Is This the End of the Age of Apple? – The New York Times – This is a big issue not only for Apple but also for all of tech. There is not a major trend that you can grab onto right now that will carry everyone forward. The last cool set of companies — Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest and, yes, Tinder — were created many years ago, and I cannot think of another group that is even close to as promising (paywall)

Masayoshi Son wants Arm’s blueprints to power all tech – Armed with a crystal ball | The Economist – I have a lot of respect for Son-san but this reads like bubble-level BS. There are so many variables such as China 2025 that make this inadvisable. Secondly its not like ARM is the only micro-computer core design that’s low power and available. Thirdly, we’ve hit peak smartphone, other devices won’t offer the same business opportunity

Amazon says 100m Alexa devices sold – usage figures remain a mystery | The Drum – and in the second part of the headline is the rub

Chinese coffee startup Luckin: We won’t be the next ofo | HEJ Insight – interesting read that reminded me a lot of the reporting on the original dot com boom in the UK and US

Internet rightists’ strategy of provocation gaining traction in Japan | The Japan Times – Japan starts to see western style internet wars with personal attacks (paywall)

When Ad Breaks Get Weird: Branded Content in Chinese TV Dramas Is Ruining It For the Viewers | What’s on Weibo – this is pretty tripped out

January 8, 2019
iPhone X production + more things
Apple reportedly resumes iPhone X production to recover from dismal sales | The Next Web – altering iPhone X production numbers would affect margins, so its a complex algebraic problem and then there is the question about differentiation between XS and X models. It is worthwhile probably looking at an SE model to the 8 and 8 plus due to many people being wedded to the home button and better battery life. The design still has a respectable margin to it, but probably not as much as iPhone X production or XS production for that matter. The cynical would view iPhone X production as gouging their loyal consumers.

Designing for Gen Z: How to connect with the next generation of influencers | Netimperative – latest digital marketing news – reminds me a lot of stuff that was written about gen-y at the beginning

Mark Ritson: The threat of direct-to-consumer disruption is overblown | Marketing Week the likes of private label at Ocado and Amazon pose a bigger threat

Mark Ritson: Don’t just look at the long term, look at the long, long term | Marketing Week – so much here. Ritson is right, but so many agendas against this:
- The disruption trope beloved of management consultants and management boards
- Digital assets tend not to be as memorable because they are focused no short term effectiveness and that’s where sexy is in marketing. But digital was used to support the Old Spice man and Cadburys gorilla ads for instance when it has been done
- Senior marketers tend to not last long in a role, so there are perverse incentives to think purely about short term gains
Korea’s Wireless Carriers Rev Up their War against Apple’s Promotions Policy with Threats of Legal Action and more – Patently Apple – this is kicking off as Samsung is bleeding, Korea doesn’t have an effective way to go after Huawei and other Chinese vendors eroding its business

A Chinese Research Firm Turns the Tables on Apple Claiming that iPhones Appeal to China’s ‘Invisible Poor’ not Middle Class – Patently Apple – interesting reading. This is more subtle than the data appears. Apple seems to have much more of a secondary market for its refurbed / secondhand handsets that is skewing the data. You have to wonder about the motives of the research company. Apple gets this due to desirability perception compared to a Huawei, HTC or Samsung

Not So Big in Japan: Apple Cuts Price of iPhone XR to Boost Sales – WSJ – Major wireless carriers in Japan plan to cut iPhone XR prices as early as next week, people with direct knowledge of the plan said, without giving details of the extent of the cut. Japan is one of the most lucrative markets for Apple, which has a dominant 46.7% share of the smartphone market, according to a survey conducted by MMD Labo from July 31 to Aug. 1.

The XR is available in Apple stores in Japan from about $750, but carriers’ pricing is more opaque as phones are bundled with data plans. (paywall)

Elliot Schrage on Definers | Facebook Newsroom – not exactly the smoking gun for the New York Times article, but also shows how public affairs is well out of step with societal norms

What Chinese women want from men nowadays | HKEJ Insight – when I was in college, and I wanted to be a journalist or writer. [In those days], we could easily attract girls if we could write a poem or play guitar. But now the world has changed. Girls want something else. Women change the way men look at this world.

Bringing the Android kernel back to the mainline [LWN.net] – this is explains why Google had been looking at Fuschia for a long time rather than following with updating Android radically

Know Your Chinese Social Media – The New York Times – (paywall) goes beyond the big platforms to cover some of the emerging ones that I don’t know well

How China Walled Off the Internet – The New York Times – DNS poisoning (paywall)

Valve discontinues the Steam Link, the best wireless HDMI gadget ever made – The Verge – interesting how PC gamers rejected the device

If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley | Bill Gates – Bill Gates on why he likes Silicon Valley

Nine of every 10 Silicon Valley jobs pays less than in 1997 – big technology companies like Google and Facebook are so dominant in their respective markets that they have been able to direct a larger share of revenues to investors and some top employees.

At the same time, the region’s increasing cost of living is leading to some of the highest poverty rates in the country, he said. Adjusted for living costs, California has the second-highest poverty rate in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau

Shortlist axe proves how hostile the men’s mag market is today – but all hope is not lost | The Drum – With the male market being so fragmented, it’s difficult to connect with men in the same way as Stylist has created a connection with a young, professional female audience. Shortlist may have had compelling, world-class editorial, but it didn’t connect as a brand in the same way Stylist does

Instagram kills off fake followers, threatens accounts that keep using apps to get them | TechCrunch – well that’s a lot of influencers dead in the water right there

Dolce & Gabbana’s New Ad Campaign Sparks Uproar in China | Jing Daily – ok. So the model meets western rather than Chinese beauty norms, don’t get me wrong she is very pretty but she isn’t the kind of face you’d see as a famous actress. Look at Fan Bingbing, Angelababy or Zhang Ziyi. Beautification photo apps tend to make the eyes wider and almond shaped, the skin uniformly pale and smooth. The face shape more heart-shaped. So that’s one aspect of ignorance that builds up a picture of ‘racism’.

Showing Chinese people how to use chopsticks overshot the cross cultural humour D&G were looking for. In this particular case the outrage. It was a hackneyed attempt to copy the kind of physical humour popular on Chinese social media channels. The dialogue is full of double entrendres making is excruciating to sit through. Think dialogue from a Carry On film ‘Ewww errr matron what a big thermometer you have’ with Benny Hill style physical comedy.

Finally nationalism and the constant viewpoint that foreign brands are just itching to insult the Motherland and; or the Party which are largely one and the same.These nationalists jump the Great Firewall and attack western social profiles like what happened to Mercedes. Interesting that western social platforms don’t bother blocking or filtering these mainland groups at all. Many use a Facebook group as a rallying point which I expect happened here. Western brands should be demanding more from Zuckerberg and Co.

What’s interesting is that the advert hasn’t been carved up from a feminist perspective; helpless squirming, awkwardly giggling embarrassed woman has #metoo moment with douche bag commentator.

Potential Policy Proposals for Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms by US Senator Mark R Warner – requiring bots / bot ran accounts to be clearly labeled as such. Making tech companies liable for defamation under state tort laws, building wider media literacy, GDPR type legislation. Audit of algorithms by government, requiring data portability between services (PDF)

RIP Apple networking, Time Capsule and AirPort no longer available from Apple – 9to5Mac – 9to5mac.com – interesting comments from Apple customers, particularly with providing an alternative to Google networking products and the Apple’s permission to play in the smart home space with no networking product in place

Digitisation is key to upgrading Asia’s fashion factories. Just do it responsibly, says Fung Group’s director of sustainability | Apparel Industry Interview | just-style – a fiend of mine has a family firm in Sri Lanka where they automated things like embroidery well over a decade ago. It is the more manual tasks that when digitised will cause most social disturbance – an example of this would be Frontline Clothing’s innovative process in distressing denim using lasers; which had previously been a manual process

A Japanese detergent maker’s first steps towards personalisation | Analysis | Campaign Asia – personalised fragrances
November 24, 2018

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